Pambazuka 783: AU Summit, whose union is the African Union?
Pambazuka 783: AU Summit, whose union is the African Union?
Gates, who is worth $80 billion, specialises in top-down technicist quick-fixes, which often backfire on the economic shooting range of extreme corporate influence and neoliberal policies. On Sunday, Gates will get even richer, in terms of the moral legitimacy bestowed by the Mandela Lecture.
Closing space for African sexual and gender minority groups is about far more than advocacy—it is about accessing critical services that no one else provides.
The life template developed in Europe and then culturally transmitted to the rest of the world is not sustainable. The time has come for a wider, global discussion about how Europe may be kept in peace and prosperity alongside everyone else, as opposed to at the expense of everyone else, as has been, and remains, the case in today’s world.
Most of Africa’s political and economic elites retain a keen interest in determining how universities’ leadership is constituted. More and more student activities at universities are being organised along political party lines, which attests to new forms of politicisation.
Pambazuka 782: Good riddance? AU Chairperson, Brexit and refugees
Pambazuka 782: Good riddance? AU Chairperson, Brexit and refugees
The Bugis, numbering around three million people and mostly Muslim, have five terms referencing various combinations of sex, gender and sexuality: female woman, male man, female man, male woman and transgender priests.
Contrary to repeated claims, the Soweto Uprising of 40 years ago was organised and led by student members of the Black Consciousness Movement of Steve Biko. They are the people who politicised other students and imbued them with the revolutionary black consciousness philosophy. They were all found guilty of sedition in the Soweto 11 trial.
There is a distinct possibility of a much smaller “Little England” looking at itself in the mirror and asking how it might salvage its relations with Africa in order to continue to get Africa’s resources and markets. This time, Africa should not let England divide and rule it; it must take the opportunity to unite and negotiate as one continent.
South African colonial modernity fabulously benefited those who prosecuted cruel adventuring; their descendants still enjoy the ill-gotten social wages. 1994 didn’t usher a new society, so decolonisation remains an unfinished undertaking. A national project that rehabilitates and restores the full humanity of the victims of racism is an urgent necessity now.
The potential for other states within the EU to withdraw from the bloc is a major worry for the imperialist states. The priority for African and other developing countries should be removing their vulnerabilities from the international capitalist system in order to achieve sustainable growth and development based on the interests of the majority of the world’s population.
The fact that media and information and communications technologies are an important resource for violent religious groups such as Al-Shabaab is a call for investment in media literacy for vulnerable and influential groups that are the target of extremist messages.
Whether it was the Ebola outbreak, drowning of African refugees in the Mediterranean, famines, the return of the god-President, the International Criminal Court or popular uprisings by young people demanding revolutionary change, the out-going Chairperson of the African Union Commission failed Africa. Her successor must be someone who understands, cares about and has a vision for the continent and its people.
Since inception of the position of Chairperson of the African Union Commission, it has been filled by three men and one woman. Just how independent, resolute, resilient and resourceful have they been, and if they have failed, is that failure a reflection on their capability or the flawed set up of the Commission?
While at best of dubious value – if not outright dangerous for the consequences in policy spheres – the Failed States Index should be no substitute for common sense. It reinforces stereotypical Eurocentric perceptions and is at best another sign of patronising and paternalist worldviews.
After many months of expectation, the famed Jamaican Reggae artiste Chronnixx was in Ethiopia where he performed to the great satisfaction of his enthusiastic fans. But he disappointed some fans who had hoped he would spare some time to personally meet them.
A humanist per excellence, Eddie brought panache and mathematical meticulousness in explaining even the most complex of historical, political and ideological issues in Nigeria.
(Harare, July 11, 2016) – Over the past 15 years, Zimbabwe's fast track land reform programme has redressed colonial land inequalities and now provides lessons for its neighbours on how to democratise land ownership and broaden economic participation. From July 12-15, various social movements and academics from Zimbabwe, Mozambique, South Africa, Ghana, Spain and Portugal will gather in Zimbabwe's capital, Harare to discuss and debate the state of land, seeds, food, climate and people in Southern Africa. The event is being held under the banner/auspices of Portugal's Popular University of Social Movements, known by its Portutguese acronym, UPMS.
Pambazuka News 781: Soweto Uprising, Black Power and African struggles today
Pambazuka News 781: Soweto Uprising, Black Power and African struggles today
The former Vice President is seeking election as Chair of the African Union Commission at next month’s summit in Kigali. Her excellent academic and leadership credentials surpass by far those of her two male rivals, Dr. Venson-Moitoi Pelonomi and Mokuy Agapito Mba, foreign affairs ministers of Botswana and Equatorial Guinea, respectively.
Last week the South African Reserve Bank Quarterly Bulletin confirmed that foreign corporations are milking the economy, drawing away profits far faster than they are reinvested or than local firms bring home offsetting profits from abroad. Can anything be done to stop the hemorrhaging?
When the purported leaders of two neighboring countries cannot even talk in a civil, well-mannered, courteous, respectful and thoughtful manner, is there any hope?
The racialized and queer groups that are interested in creating coalitions to fight police violence should give priority attention to the experiences of racialized and queer folks from the working-class. Homeless individuals, psychiatric survivors, sex workers, youth/young people, individuals in the criminal (in)justice system, and other groups that fall within Fanon’s “wretched of the earth” should be at the centre of the organizing work against police violence.
Elections for the AU Commission should pass the same rigorous test and uphold the principles that the continental body requires from Member States. Intensive election competition, emanating from a genuine commitment to the Pan-African agenda and with a vision to provide better leadership, would signify marked differences from the past and would result in a more effective and efficient AU.
Kwame Ture was initially resistant to raising the slogan but after his unjust arrest took the podium and said "We Want Black Power!" The enthusiastic response would usher in a new era in the African American liberation struggle impacting the political discourse for at least another decade.
The famous college, the oldest institution of higher learning in West Africa, is collapsing under the weight of incompetent leadership, poor facilities and lack of capacity. Only urgent, thoughtful intervention can save Fourah Bay College from imminent death.
In his new book, South African academic Ndangwa Noyoo contends that Africans can longer continue to attribute their underdevelopment to the machinations of Europeans and other foreigners. Africans themselves are to blame for their own failings. An excerpt.
Racism has succeeded not just in making anti-Black violence a part of normal human existence, but it has also succeeded in making Black people numb to their own pain and suffering, and in many instances, made it normal for Black people to become participants in their own oppression.
The Soweto Uprising of June 16, 1976 did not just drop from the sky. The Black students of South Africa did not wake up one day and begin resisting Bantu Education. The uprising was carefully organized and led secretly by leaders of the underground political movement, most of them militants of the banned Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC).
Kenya seems to be hurtling inexorably towards another round of politically instigated violence connected to the 2017 elections. Hate speech is on the rise and there are even reports of groups arming themselves. Polarization is especially deepening between the Luo community on the one hand and the Kikuyu-Kalenjin ethnic alliance that rules Kenya.
Police in Kenya seem to have been under instructions to use lethal force against peaceful protesters in the Western region, which is an opposition stronghold. The Government of Kenya should publicly acknowledge and condemn the killings and maiming of unarmed people by members of the security forces and undertake credible investigations to bring the perpetrators to justice.
Beyond the propping up of tyrannical leaders that have subjected their populations to widespread, systematic, pervasive human rights violations, the West’s longstanding infatuation with Ethiopian autocrats is extremely problematic because it has encouraged Ethiopia’s bellicosity and aggression towards its neighbours.
African cultures contain elements that may enhance or undermine democracy and development. Because cultures change over time, it is up to Africans to critically examine their own beliefs and practices to see how best they can use these to advance the interests of their people.
Special Issue: Financing development in Africa
Special Issue: Financing development in Africa
This special issue of Pambazuka News brings you analysis and commentary by experts, most based on the continent, outlining what it will take for Africa to achieve its much sought after transformation in the post-MDGs era.
What is required now, more than ever before, is action. The financing architectures of many African countries need overhauling. They need to engender equity, child rights, transparency and accountability. Unless that is don, the many regional and international commitments that touch on children will remain mere political pronouncements.
Gender inequality in Africa is one of the key drivers of poverty, yet there is the lack of political will to make substantive and concrete financial commitments to achieving gender equality. The money simply must follow the rhetoric.
This article reflects on the status and progress made in the revitalisation of the agriculture sector in Africa. It looks at the challenges that make it difficult to increase food productivity, create decent employment, and end inequalities in our food systems, and what it will take to transform agriculture in Africa.
It must be emphasised that if sustainable development and real transformation are to be achieved, infrastructure development and the approaches chosen to finance it must serve the people, bring education, health and clean energy to the poor and marginalised.
Africa has not benefited substantially from its mineral wealth. It is, therefore, essential for resource-rich nations to tailor their economic policies to effectively harness and utilise mineral revenues to improve the productivity of non-mineral sectors to break out of the extractive enclave.
The Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation will be holding its second High-Level Meeting in Nairobi from 28 November to 1 December 2016. Why will this meeting matter, and how can it drive development players to scale up the effectiveness and quality of their actions in view of delivering the ambitious Sustainable Development Goals?
The key to sustainable, adequate and predictable financing of Africa’s development no longer lies in the delivery of aid from traditional donors but largely in unlocking the domestic resource potential, so that the continent can harness more of its own revenue for development.
The importance of poverty eradication characterises African and global development priorities, and seems to lie at the foundation of Official Development Assistance. Africa, the region with the greatest number of the world’s poor, should be the logical focus of development cooperation partnerships. Yet only 20% of reported ODA is spent in Africa, and there’s evidence that it’s getting less.
Issue Title
Issue Title
Muhammad Ali had the courage to stand up in the face of racism, injustice, oppression and unfairness and refuse to back down come hell or high water.
Ali is one of the greatest and most influential activist celebrities in the world. In an era where sports endorsements and lucrative sponsorships have silenced any measure of radicalism or integrity in the sports world, his career sets him apart.
Escaping the heat into the fire: Migration of Ethiopian women domestic workers to the Gulf countries
Migrant domestic workers in the Middle East and Gulf countries are ranked, with Filipinos at the top commanding the highest salaries, followed by Indonesian and Sri Lankan women, and African women at the bottom. The region has a deeply rooted culture of discrimination against people of African descent.
Underage marriage is a big problem in Southern Africa. Now the regional parliament has won praise for enacting a new model law to end the menace. The challenge lies in adoption and enforcement of the law in the member states.
Che, the revolutionary thinker and organizer whosebirthday falls on June 14, has left us two major elements of his legacy. One: Revolution is everything and we as individuals, in isolation, are nothing. And two: Injustice anywhere against anyone is injustice against all of us everywhere.
Assorted documents found in the FBI files of Stokely Carmichael from 1966 provide a glimpse of the degree to which the federal government under the Lyndon B. Johnson administration sought to curtail and liquidate the advancing civil rights and black power movements of the time period.
The answer is that in America, stupid arguments are sometimes allowed to override sane ones, provided the organisation or person peddling the argument is powerful or rich enough. Around 3.7 million American households have a military-grade weapon similar to the one used in Sunday’s mass killings.
An exhibition will be held at the Musée du quai Branly in honour of former French President Jacques Chirac from 21 June to 9 October 2016. This exhibition and renaming of the museum after Chirac do not change the status of the artefacts: They were looted from Africa and other places and the rightful owners want them back.
From Ethiopian solidarity to Palestinian solidarity: Petitioning for an international volunteer army
In the 1930s, there was a global Pan African movement for a volunteer army that petitioned Haile Selassie to fight Benito Mussolini’s fascist Italy in occupied Ethiopia. What can this historical Ethiopia solidarity movement tell us about Palestine solidarity and the use of petitions today? Whatever happens, after such a new petition movement to forge a volunteer armed force of Palestine solidarity gets off the ground, it will be a defining issue.
The famous portrait of Che Guevara graces T-shirts and posters the world over, but what did the revolutionary leader actually stand for?
State terror against the Igbo people of Nigeria continues. In 2016, nowhere else on earth in this era of instant communication are any peoples murdered so monstrously with scant responses of revulsion from the rest of the world, particularly from those chiefly responsible for propping up the Nigerian regime.
Pan Africanism is anti-nobody. It is pro-Africa. The mammoth task of liberating Africa from the ongoing imperialist exploitation and marginalisation can be achieved only through Pan-African unity. African people must understand that they have a common destiny.
While Canadian companies exploit African resources for their own benefit, this country’s charities call on us to join Africa “hope” walks.
Almost four million Malawians are battling severe famine due to poor or no harvests because of the effect of El Nino, which last year affected most of the country’s southern and northern regions. The numbers of those starving could double by the end of the year.
The renowned radical scholar-activist was murdered 36 years ago because he did not fit into the old political mold, where leaders accepted the colonial structure and wallowed in its fineries, especially the misuse of the machineries of state to silence dissent. His death reminds all progressive people of their responsibility to organize and resist the abuse of state power.
Pambazuka News 778: Saluting the greatest: Muhammad Ali and Black Power new
Pambazuka News 778: Saluting the greatest: Muhammad Ali and Black Power new
He took the stand that he did, because he believed he was doing ‘the right thing’ for his community, his family and the government he had helped put in parliament. Tragically, today the state has reneged on their side of the bargain and failed to ‘do the right thing’ for Philani.
The boxing champion won many battles in and outside the ring during the 1960s and 1970s. Ali’s life illustrates the role of African Americans in sports and its relationship to the broader struggle against national oppression.
The media in all its diversity has an important role to play in fighting female genital cutting/mutilation. Opening public dialogue about FGM/C will contribute in raising awareness among people. Through the media it is possible to address world leaders to take a stand and make resolutions to ban FGM/C and engage in empowering and educating generations to say no to this form of abuse.
The government and policy-makers in Israel can help stop the ongoing genocide of the Igbo by boycotting all dealings with the Nigerian government. For a state like Israel to continue doing business with a genocidal state like Nigeria is not any different from sponsorship of state terrorism.
African Studies remains a colonised space. While the early writings about Africa are based on colonial expeditions, missionary exploits and anthropological ethnographies, contemporary scholarship is dominated by non-Africans who have positioned themselves as the authoritative voices in a 21st century scramble for influence, as if Africa has no intellectuals or knowledge production of its own.
His often weightless songs came in cascades and cemented his reputation while he avoided opening his mouth so as not to put his foot in it. The absence of substance was disguised and presented as something else but in order to get to it, you had to wade through an endless litter of frilly things and hesitant, incoherent silences and arrogant attitudes. This is indeed Prince’s most remarkable achievement.
It is not just the Biafrans. There are widespread perceptions among virtually all Nigerian groups that they are marginalised and they seek redress in a new Nigeria. The reason for this is the supplanting of federalism with a Jacobin unitary state. The erosion of multiple poles of political power by military dictators and subsequently by an all-powerful presidency has exacerbated the spectre of the fear of domination everywhere in the country.
Ten years after acquiring the Chergui gas concession in Kerkennah through a corrupt deal, and five years after Tunisia’s uprising for bread, freedom and social justice, the British oil and gas company Petrofac faces growing discontent on the island. In the first two weeks of April, Kerkennah was the scene of violent police repression of protests against the oil company.
The BPP’s revolutionary legacy offers many useful lessons in organizing work to create a just and emancipated world. But radical organizations and organizers should be wary of the BPP’s top-down leadership approach. Moreover, the party was ill-advised in believing that the lumpen, especially the criminal elements, could serve as a revolutionary force.
The joint university experiment, by pooling resources within the same sub-region and drawing on the different strengths of the three member colleges and their respective host countries, represents an early and instructive model of South-South cooperation.
A family in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa has been battling with the African Union over a piece of property in the past five years. But the family’s predicament is only a small part of a wider struggle under a soulless system that has little regard for the lives of its people.
When Cassius Clay stood up in Miami, Florida, and said my name is Muhammad Ali, he was in fact the greatest boxer and African patriot. When he stood up in front of a federal courthouse in Houston, Texas, and said “my fight is right here with you,” that was the Ali of the people. That was the greatest. But he, too, had his contradictions.
Muhammad said he was pleased to come to Ghana - from an America where black people had to struggle for their ordinary human rights - to find back people running their whole country “beautifully”. Americans, he said, were being misinformed that Africans were eating each other and climbing up and down trees.
DreamAfrica is a platform through which the old tradition of African storytelling is preserved and the telling of new stories is facilitated. It is also a common entertainment and educational platform in the household and school.
Mozambique, long touted as an African “success story”, is sinking under debt. International lenders and donors have been angered by revelations of at least $2.3 billion in secret loans taken in 2013-4. Inflation is rising and so is the cost of living. The government is clamping down on critics speaking up about the crisis. The future looks uncertain.
Muhammad Ali lost his boxing title, and almost lost five years of his life to prison, for refusing to fight in the racist and imperialist war waged on Vietnam. If one truly admires Ali for speaking out against the war on Vietnam, then, by principle, one should vehemently oppose today’s imperialist wars of aggression.
IS THERE NO JUSTICE FOR MURDER, EVEN AFTER 36 YEARS? COMMISSION REPORT ISSUED ON ASSASSINATION
OF DR. WALTER RODNEY. HOWEVER, THE GUYANA GOVERNMENT HAS REFUSED TO MAKE THE REPORT PUBLIC OR ACT ON THE COI RECOMMENDATIONS.
Pambazuka News 777: One struggle, many fronts: Achieving African liberation
Pambazuka News 777: One struggle, many fronts: Achieving African liberation
Pan-Africanism as it once was dreamed is dead. In its place—instead of a transnational framework of solidarity deployed to give heart and direction to Africans during the independence and self-determination struggles—we have something that rallies to the defence of rich, powerful men but remains painfully silent about the suffering of the poor and dispossessed.
The response to the Brazilian coup shows that the BRICS powers are not a real alternative to US imperialism.
Since 100 prostitutes in Lyon, France, occupied a church in 1975 to protest police abuse over 40 years ago, sex workers across the globe have been organizing for their rights to work and to live free from violence and discrimination.
It is difficult to fault Chido Onumah’s contention in his new book. It’s no longer news that in Nigeria there is deep and widespread frustration with the conduct of federalism which is easily linked to a federal architecture that is responsible for the multi-dimensional crises of poor governance, ethno-political conflict and socio-economic underdevelopment that the country has been contending with for about five decades now.